Sighting Marvels in a Beseiged City

“He has made marvelous His lovingkindness to me in a besieged city” (Psalm 31:21)

We are not always cognizant of the marvels of His lovingkindness. In a city besieged, we are apt to keep our eyes at ground-level, narrowly focused on the evil and the machinations of war. We see nothing of the glories, nothing of the favors of the Lord — those things we might otherwise have viewed in faith.

It’s that way in the everyday too. Problems of every sort lay siege to the believer; some are petty, some press in with suffocating force. Even so, He is gracious and longsuffering for, even as the prophet prayed that his servant’s eyes would be opened (2 Kings 6:17), God desires that we face reality with the eyes of faith. If we do, we begin to see what we might have known all along: the Lord is good and faithful to all generations. Truly, “He makes His lovingkindness marvelous to us in a beseiged city.”

Romans 8:18–25: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”